Children freeze to death in Gaza
Newshour
BBC
4.2 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 31 December 2024
⏱️ 49 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Winter's bitter cold is taking a terrible toll in Gaza. In the past week alone, six babies have perished from hypothermia and with hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians living in tents, and temperatures expected to drop even further, the UN Children’s agency is warning more children’s lives are at risk. Unicef, like all aid agencies, says they continue to face obstacles on bringing life-saving aid into Gaza. Israel blames Hamas, accusing it of stealing the aid.
Also in the programme: Scientists claim to have detected which volcano erupted in 1831, causing catastrophic weather which led to widespread crop failures and devastating famines; and our look back at the reporting highlights of 2024.
(Photo: People pray next to the bodies of two Palestinian babies who died of hypothermia at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on 29 December 2024. Credit: Reuters/Ramadan Abed)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to NewsHour from the BBC World Service. |
| 0:06.8 | We're coming to live from our studio in London. |
| 0:09.7 | I'm Leis Doucette, and it is the last day of the year. |
| 0:12.9 | And coming up, we'll hear from NewsHours James Menendez. |
| 0:15.7 | He's been looking at some of the standout stories of the year and of our year to 25 minutes. |
| 0:22.0 | But first we begin in Gaza, where winter's bitter cold is taking a terrible toll. |
| 0:28.1 | In the past week alone, six babies have perished from hypothermia. |
| 0:32.1 | And with hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians living in tents |
| 0:35.3 | and temperatures expected to drop even further, |
| 0:38.6 | the UN's Children's Agency is warning, more children's lives are at risk. |
| 0:43.7 | UNICEF, like all aid agencies, say they continue to face obstacles on bringing |
| 0:48.1 | life-saving aid into Gaza. Israel blames Hamas, accusing it of stealing the aid. In a moment, we'll look at Israel's |
| 0:56.1 | approach to the Gaza war. But first, our correspondent in Jerusalem, Emer Nader, has worked |
| 1:01.3 | with two freelance journalists in Gaza. The BBC, like other international media, is barred |
| 1:06.7 | from traveling there to report independently, and a warning that his report includes upsetting events. |
| 1:15.7 | Mahmoud Fasih is walking through the courtyard of a hospital in Gaza's Chahunas. |
| 1:21.1 | He's cradling a small bundle with both of his arms, a baby shrouded in white cloth. |
| 1:28.3 | Little Sela was just 20 days old when her father couldn't wake her. |
| 1:35.3 | In the morning I found her staff like wood. |
| 1:37.3 | I took her to the hospital and they told me your daughter has been dead for an hour due to the cold. |
| 1:43.3 | I have no clothes, no food, |
| 1:45.6 | no drink. Only God knows our condition. |
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